Last night Bob and I exploited the pumpkin - we carved Jack-O-Lanterns, baked a pumpkin pie, seasoned some seeds and drank pumpkin ale - in celebration of this glorious holiday.
I am traveling to London with me mum. In my absense I will be entrusting the gallery to three intelligent, talented and beautiful ladies: pastel artist Terry McCue and photographing femme fatales Erin Molloy and Ashley Shoukimas; and a Bob (also adept and aesthetically pleasing) will be sitting in on Saturday.
Last night I attended a benefit for the Portsmouth Halloween Parade, featuring CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI, "one of the first and eeriest movies ever committed to film, a 1919 classic that paved the way for fright films for years to come. Traveling sideshows, suspicious hypnotists, creepy fortune-telling sleepwalkers and, yes, murder abound - all tied together with some of the pointiest, most insanely surreal sets ever designed." The film was accompanied by an original score written and performed live by three time “Best Jazz Band of the Seacoast” award winning ensemble “Color”. A harmonious balance of visual and auditory stimuli, the sets were painterly and the improvisation was impressive. 
Our journey continued to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. I am embarassed to admit this was my first visit to this magical place - first opened in 1903, the museum consists of three floors of galleries (filled with paintings, sculpture, tapestries, furniture and decorative arts from cultures spanning thirty centuries) surrounding a luscious garden courtyard. Never before have I seen works by Raphael, Botticelli and Sargeant (to name a few) in such an intimate setting. Words cannot descibe how much I love this museum...
Isabella Stewart Gardner, known also as "Mrs. Jack" in reference to her husband, John L. ("Jack") Gardner, was one of the foremost female patrons of the arts. She was a patron and friend of leading artists and writers of her time, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler and Henry James. She was a supporter of community social services and cultural enrichment. She was an ardent fan of the Boston Symphony, the Red Sox and Harvard College football. Isabella Stewart Gardner was also the visionary creator of what remains one of the most remarkable and intimate collections of art in the world today and a dynamic supporter of artists of her time, encouraging music, literature, dance and creative thinking across artistic disciplines.
Over three decades, Isabella Stewart Gardner traveled the world and worked with important art patrons and advisors Bernard Berenson and Okakura Kakuzo to amass a remarkable collection of master and decorative arts. In 1903, she completed the construction of Fenway Court in Boston to house her collection and provide a vital place for Americans to access and enjoy important works of art. Mrs. Gardner installed her collection of works in a way to evoke intimate responses to the art, mixing paintings, furniture, textiles and objects from different cultures and periods among well-known
European paintings and sculpture.
On the night of March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and roamed the galleries, stealing thirteen works of art, including: Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633), A Lady and Gentleman in Black (1633) and a Self-Portrait (1634); Vermeer's The Concert (1658-1660); Govaert Flinck's Landscape with an Obelisk (1638); five drawings by the Impressionist artist Edgar Degas; and Edouard Manet's Chez Tortoni (1878-1880). The works have not yet been recovered. The $5 million dollar reward leading to the return of the art works is, as yet, unclaimed.
Finding ourselves in Jamaica Plain we decided to take advantage of the glorious weather and stroll thru the Arboretum. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is the "oldest public arboretum in North America and one of the world's leading centers for the study of plants. A unique blend of beloved public landscape and respected research institution, they provide and support world-class research, horticulture and education programs that foster the understanding, appreciation and preservation of trees."
The Arboretum also hosts art exhibitions - "Woody Plants: Contemporary Botanical Arts Exhibition" opens this weekend. The show features meticulously detailed flora and fauna by the New England Society of Botanical Artists. more info
Yesterday, opened with an exceedingly stressful excursion into Boston. Following two wrong turns and one near collision we found our destination - the studio of Rachel Paxton in Jamaica Plain. 
The gallery has been graced by the highly anticipated new paintings of Nicole McCormick. Two and a half years have passed since McCormick's last showing at Three Graces, her "Private Stories" was well received in May 2005. Since then, she has exhibited her work in highly regarded intitutions and acquired a position as an Assistant Professor at William and Mary College. 
I do not intend for the viewer to completely decipher the
work. My intention is rather that the viewer deposits his own narrative onto the images giving way to new storylines and interpretations.
Proudly he has stood in the window, serving as a sort of mascot for the gallery, and his departure is bitter sweet.
